Thursfield wins acclaim, learns lessons
9:25:58 AM Thu 21 July, 2005
Angus Morgan
Exclusive to afl.com.au
Three matches in to his AFL career, Will Thursfield has won wide acclaim for his versatility, maturity and the energy he's brought to the Richmond backline.
Tall and strong enough to go one-on-one all day on debut with Sydney veteran Michael O'Loughlin in the Tigers' thrilling one point win, the 19 year-old was given a very different assignment by coach, Terry Wallace against the Saints last Saturday - to stop the elusive Stephen Milne.
While the Tigers generally struggled to stay with the Saints on the day, Thursfield did his job superbly, more than matching Milne for pace and holding him goalless virtually until time-on in the final term.
In those last few moments, however, Milne cut loose to score three times. The goals had no bearing on the result, but made a significant impression on his young opponent.
"Yeah, he was pretty quiet for most of the game and then, just a combination of things, I probably just dropped off a little bit in the last few minutes and, jeez, he made me pay," Thursfield said.
"He's pretty dangerous because he runs up to the ball and turns around and sprints back. You've got to concentrate the whole game with him."
So instead of adding Milne's name to his list of conquests, Thursfield had a new entry for his list of football lessons - to play it out to the final siren and to not relax for one second.
They're lessons he knows he must take on board from if he's to develop into the player he wants to be.
"After each of the three games when I've come off the ground, I reckon I've learned something new, for sure," Thursfield said.
"That first game especially, Terry told me afterwards it was probably worth a dozen games, just the experience of staying on the field for the whole game. It's been great and I've learned heaps so far.
"It just helps the week after because you know a bit more about what players will do and how they'll try to expose you."
Playing senior football had been the last thing on Thursfield's mind when he signed-on at Punt Road as Richmond's first pick in last year's AFL Rookie Draft.
By Thursfield's own estimation, he was "too skinny and too raw" so he set his sights on trying to hold down a spot with Coburg in the VFL.
Just as he was running into some good form, the opportunity for promotion to the senior list arose when Nathan Brown was ruled out for the season with a broken leg.
"It's been awesome just getting a game. Terry's put me on some pretty good opponents, so I've had to adjust pretty quickly without too much time to work out what's going on," Thursfield said.
"I've just been chucked in the deep end, but that's helped in a way. I just had to get in there and get on with the job.
"It's just unreal playing senior football and I hope to just stay in the team and get a few wins."
It says plenty about how quickly he's adapted that Thursfield remained on the ground for the entire 120 minutes in his first two matches and spent around 100 minutes on the field against the Saints.
He makes a point of working closely with the likes of Mark Graham, Andrew Kellaway and Darren Gaspar at training to pick up as many tips as he can from the Tigers' veteran defenders and believes he has the game to complement their experience.
"Maybe what I've brought is a bit of speed and enthusiasm into the backline. They're all senior players down there, there's no-one really young. I probably add a bit of life, I suppose."
With Kellaway and Gaspar sidelined by injury, Thursfield knows how important it will be for the Richmond defence to stand up against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night, and he expects to be assigned the job on one of the Power's smaller forwards - Josh Mahoney or Brett Ebert, perhaps.
He appreciates that a win will reaffirm the eighth-placed Tigers' finals credentials while at the same time dealing tenth-placed Port's finals hopes a hefty blow.
"We know that we probably need to pinch a win from somewhere and then do well in the games we're expected to go well in. We see ourselves as having a very good chance this week over at Port Adelaide."
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